Tag Archives: swamp story

Aphanasia Stuff, Aphanasian Stories, Lost and Found

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Just came from a wonderful meeting with my critique group…where we pretty much decided that the story currently known as ‘There’ can not really stand on its own and it needs the sequel in order to work.

All this time I’ve been struggling with the question ‘What is this story about, really?’ and the question I should have been asking is ‘Whose story is this? Colby’s or Xavier’s?’ The thing is, my critique partners (one in particular) has been asking me that for ages now but it never clicked in my brain until tonight. The short spoiler-free version of the answer is, this is not Colby’s story it is Xavier’s story. Colby’s mission is the sub-plot, Xavier’s escape and the man who held him are the real plot.

That changes things. A lot of things.

I’m happy to have come to this realisation now as I’m beginning another round (hopefully the last) of revisions and not once I was done them again, but at the same time, that means I need to come up with a title in very little time, and the wonderful suggested ones may not work.

I know that flexibility and change are pivotal to writing and revision and I know this is the right thing to do, but I feel a little bit flakey…and not a bit silly for not figuring this out sooner and for wasting everyone’s time and creativity today. Thank you for the suggestions, I am keeping them all in mind as I frantically brainstorm for the right title for my now, much longer, story.

Muddied Waters
Heart
Heart of the Swamp
Lost and Found

Those are the ones I still think might work…or they might not.

I’m going to go take a bath, they help me think and right now my brain could really use to stop spinning quite so quickly.

Aphanasia Stuff, Lost and Found

Help?

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I need a title for the novella/novelette/story I’m working on, and I need it soon. Like, by the end of the day. *sigh* Titles are irksome, sometimes they come really easily and other times they make me fight tooth and nail and even once I have one I’m not sure it’s the one I want.

In this case, the working title is “There”. The reason it is called ‘There’ is because its sequel was called ‘And Back Again’ and I thought that was quite clever, he he ho ho. However, the first story kinda gets screwed name-wise in the absence of its sequel, and that’s not cool.

I don’t have a polished blurb (or even an unpolished one for that matter) for the story, so let me just tell you a little bit about it. This is an Aphanasian story (like Shades of Green or Sister Margaret) about a sixteen year old girl named Colby and a tentacled man named Xavier. Colby goes to the Aphanasian swamp to find the reptar’s magic stone, Z’thandra’s Heart, which she thinks might cure her brother’s illness. In the swamp she runs into Xavier who has just escaped from the man who held him captive and performed expiriements on him for years. Together they struggle to find their way to the Reptar and the stone Colby so desperately needs, while simultaneously running away from the mercenarys sent to recapture Xavier.

Yeah. That description needs work LOL I hope, however, there’s enough there for you to help me out here. Some title ideas I’ve had included the following:

Heart
A Bit of Heart
In the Swamp
Morass

… Yeah, see how I’m drawing blanks? So far my favorite is ‘Heart’ because it refers to several things including the name of the magic stone and the relationship that grows between Colby and Xavier, but… I can’t decide.

Do you have any ideas? Suggestions from not in my list will be greedily accepted. I know ultimately I have to make my own decision, but I’ve been struggling with this for a good, long while now and I thought it would be good to look for some outside help. And did I mention I have to title it by the end of the day?

*sigh* Yeah.

Help?

ETA: “Heart of the Swamp” and “Lost and Found” are two titles that were suggested which I think have potential.

Sale, Shades of Green

Shades of Green

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The contract has been sent, signed and sent back to the publisher. That means it’s official! My novella, Shades of Green has been accepted for publication by Sam’s Dot Publishing. *squee* The publication date is January 1, 2010 and I can’t think of a better way to start the year.

Shades of Green is an Aphanasian story, it was originally part of my novel-in-stories, Swamp Story, before I decided to rip it apart and make the stories stand on their own. Shades of Green is about a swamp elf, Z’thandra, who lives with the reptar, a fierce race of lizard-people who resent her presence and want her gone from the village. When she discovers a human in the swamp and falls in love with him, she needs to make a difficult decision, the reprecussions of which will affect the Reptar for generations.

It’s a love story…of a sort, and I am really proud of it. I can’t wait to see it in print and be able to share it with readers!

*does a little happy dance*

Aphanasian Stories, Flash, Published, Shadows

Going insane, and a bit of flash

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I’ve got a couple fulls out to agents right now, for both Swamp Story and Shadows, and I’m kinda going insane I think. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because if things don’t work out it will be quite devastating, but at the same time, it’s very hard not to. Please keep your fingers, metaphorically crossed for me. I am not going to go into any more details just yet, I don’t want to jinx myself LOL

I do have some news I can go into details about though. My funny little flash piece, Swapped, is included in the current issue of Mississippi Crow Magazine. Rumor has it you can get a copy of the .pdf for free, if you check it out I’d love to hear what you think 🙂

And please, send good thoughts my way re: agents and staying sane.

Aphanasian Stories, Recognition, Sale

A Good Day

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I had a good day yesterday, no, actually, it was a great day. Days like that don’t come along very often.

First, my short story Axe was chosen to appear in the first ever print edition of Demon Minds. Yay! I was very excited about having it accepted for the online version a few weeks ago, but I’m one of those writers who love, love, loves to see their work in actual print. Axe is the most disturbing story I’ve ever written, though, so it’s exciting and nerve-wracking to know it is going to print.

Also in the category of nerve-wracking is that I heard back from one of the agents I’d queried about Blood and Stone (which I’ve renamed Swamp Story). She requested a partial. *squee* I’m so excited, but nervous too. Keep your fingers crossed for me…

But wait, there’s more!

The day before yesterday I got an email from Carolyn Clink inviting me to read some of my poetry at an open mic event during World Fantasy. I don’t intend to read, but I hope to attend and listen, and I did do a little fan-girl squeal and bounce in my seat at reading the email. It was sent to me and a few other people, but we were all mentioned by name in the body of the email. Yes, I really did think ‘Oh my god, Carolyn Clink wrote me an email, she totally knows I’m alive!’. Yup. For those of you not familiar with Carolyn, she’s a very talented poet and she is married to Robert J. Sawyer. Yup. So full of awesome.

But, more about yesterday…

I’d entered a contest a few days ago and I got the email yesterday that I’d won! I would include a link here to the book I won, but um…I don’t have the link yet. Once I do, I’ll share it 🙂

Last, but certainly not least, my copies of Lost Innocence arrived yesterday. They look amazing! I can’t wait for people to see them, they are so gorgeous. Now I just need to figure out how to get them to the post office (I don’t drive and 40 books are heavy). I suspect they will be being mailed out in waves.

So yes, I had a fantastic day yesterday. Have you ever had a day like that? I’d love to hear about it.